The general overview of the campaign is that the characters would be travelling all over Mars (with the occasional jaunt to inner system locations like Extropia, Venus and maybe a Scum Swarm). I had the idea that each enemy faction would be contributing research to the others, so depending on which faction the players pursued in which order, the remaining factions would be stronger in different ways. What I have here are my notes from the introductory adventure, it gives the players a taste of all the different groups and gives them an opportunity to learn more about what they are planning. For best effect, the book X-Threats is required.
Imperative:
Retrieve
An Eclipse Phase Adventure
Overview: Hermes Delivery, a micro-corp based out of
Petasos station, Went dark, stopping all deliveries for most of last
year. Firewall assumed that the organization had folded from
financial pressures, as they were heavily in debt. Recently, though,
the station sent out most of its transorbital ships to various
locations around Mars and launched its two long haul freighters. One
of the freighters traveled in the direction of Venus, and the other
towards the outer system. Petasos station was taken by exhumans of
various packs as a staging point for Project Imago. Project Imago is
an effort to create a self-replicating ecosystem of exhumans composed
of rational minds of as many clades as possible.
History:
8.8 AF- Dr. Tran makes several forks of himself before
joining Firewall.
9.1 AF- Several Exhuman Clades meet in the outer system
and agree to form Project Imago
9.2 AF- The Adelphos Parasite Clade sends three members
to Petasos in regular transhuman morphs
9.4 AF- Storage containers arrive from the outer system
with three Defiler Morphs.
9.4 AF- Adelphos infiltrators sleeve into the Defiler
Morphs and shut down the station
9.4 AF- The final crew member falls victim to the
Defilers. They undergo psychosurgury and are sent back to Mars, unaware that anything stange has happened on the station.
9.5 AF- Petasos Station is converted into a breeding
ground for the Exhuman Clades
10.4 AF- Project Imago disperses across Mars and into
the Long Haul Freighters
10.4 AF- Proxy Polycephalus contacts the Sentinels
Deployment: Proxy Polycephalus contacts the Sentinels
stationed in Olympus. He tells them they have been selected for a
mission in Martian orbit and their cell is designated Imperative:
Retrieve. They are to meet with an operative called The Postman
(Proxy Polycephalus in another identity) in the Olympus tether.
Polycephalus gives a Sign and Countersign to identify The Postman.
Sign: Who watches the postman?
Counter Sign: Eyes in every window
Sentinels receive this message though a variety of
roundabout methods.
The Postman is waiting in Olympus Bar in the Tether. He
is a short man, possibly Filipino genotype. He hands off an ecto
containing the basic outline of the mission. He can arrange for
transport to the station as part of the operations budget (10,000
credits). The Postman has his mesh inserts in autistic mode.
Proxy Polycephalus
is an investigative reporter working for an Experia publication
called E-XP-osé.
He is an Async with powers of suggestion and is extremely skilled at
assuming false identities. When he has the choice he will choose
morphs appearing to be Latin American or South-East Asian men. He is
fluent in the artificial colour language of uplifted octopuses and,
when speaking in that language to someone he trusts with his identity
(almost no-one) he will give his name as Shifting-Slowly-From-Indigo.
Prior to the Fall, Diego was writing exposé
about Cognite's uplift research facilities. His empathy for one of
the test subjects (an uplift from a program to create corporate
assassins and spies) named Shifting-Slowly-From-Indigo caused him to
blow his cover and attempt a rescue. Unable to get the experimental
body off of the station safely, he integrated his own ego with that
of the uplift. He spent the years surrounding the fall in a medical
facility orbiting Luna where he contracted the Watts-MacLeod virus in
circumstances he is still trying to discover.
Messages:
-A Synth Barbershop Quartet, when combined with a
program (OneTime.Exe) only accessible by those with a connection to The Eye, delivers the message through metaphor and code.
-A pickpocket slips a coin (featuring a neck with three
heads) with skinlink on it into the Sentinel's pocket while they are
in a Souk.
-Targeted AR spam delivers the message from several ads
at once, directly into their entoptics.
-A bust of Janus arrives at their home that spells out
the message when touched.
-A Window Prostitute delivers the message in a daze, and
does not remember giving the instructions
-A nearby fabber pings them, and then prints out a
ticket for the space elevator with skinlink embedded instructions.
Clades:
Predator- Wildlife: Uplifts and former mercurials,
mostly neo-cetacians and neo-hominids with a few Octomorphs
Sublime- Neocortex: Neurodes interested in group minds,
Asyncs and skilled in Nano and Viral engineering
Soul Eaters- Hundred Hands: AGI Soul Eaters that show
some Singularity Seeker affiliation. Based on one AGI, interested in
Wild Artificals.
Predator- F#: Solo Predator, rejects language
Singularity Seeker- Dr. Bao Ky Tran: Solo Singularity
Seeker, experimenting with organic weapons and neogenic morphs,
former member of firewall
Adaptives- The Shipbreakers: Void Salvagers, lure ships
to their asteroid lairs with emergency beacons
Parasites- Adelphos: Instigators of Project Imago,
Parasite Clade with influences from the Predator and Adaptive
schools, testing enhancing Feral Defiler intelligence with
accelerated simulspace dreamspaces.
Adelphos Defilers:
All are connected via a TacNet. If alerted to the
presence of intruders, they will attempt to remove relevent
information.
Aleph: Armed with a Railgun SMG
Bet: Carries a Diamond Axe and a Torch (No Kinetic
Weapons Skill, Spray Weapons at 60)
Gimel: Armed with a Double Seeker Rifle, carries
Overload in one side and High Explosive in the other (No Kinetic
Weapons Skill, Seeker Weapons at 60)
Feral Defilers:
Literally numbered, Bet spray painted marks on them,
gradually leading up to a box with a single dash through it
There are 5 Feral Defilers on the station- reference
names are below
1- I
2- R
3- N
4- Square
5- Tick
F#: This Predator is sleeved in a modified Courier morph
armed with Seeker Weapons and four mounted monofilament swords. It
sits on the outside of Petasos Station and protects against intruders
with a Rail Sniper Rifle emplacement sized for fighters and shuttles.
IMPLANTS
Access
Jacks, Basic Mesh Inserts, Chemical Sniffer, Cortical Stack, Cryonic
Protection, Cyberbrain, Direction Sense, Enhanced Vision, Extra Limbs
(4), Grip Pads, Headlights, Hidden Compartment, Internal Rocket,
Lidar, Magnetic System, Mnemonic Augmentation, Plasma Sail Implant,
Radar, Retracting/Telescoping Limbs, T-ray Emitter, Medichines,
Oracles, Neurachem (1), Reflex Booster, Invisibility, 360 Degree
Vision, Anti-Glare, Electric Sense, Radiation Sense, Structural
Enhancement
F#-
Von Neumann Body (Based off of an Arachnikoma with the
internal cavity filled with the hive and server.)
WEAPONS
Articulated
Mounted Kinetic Assault Rifles x2: 75 (RAP Rounds, -8 AP, 2d10+5 DV,
Payload: 30)
IMPLANTS
Access
Jacks, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Enhanced
Vision, Extra Limbs (10 Arms/Legs), Lidar, Mnemonic Augmentation,
Pneumatic Limbs, Radar, Implant Simulspace Server, Implant General
Hive, Reflex Booster
TRAITS
Large
Size, Ambidextrous
Petasos- Tin Can hab at L2 over Mars. The entire habitat
is in microgravity.
Modules:
Body Bank: In addition to the 8 Healing Vats
normally found in the module, 8 more have been placed on the ceiling
and floor. Partially grown Defiler variants float in nutrient fluid,
they seem similar to pods, but their tissues are held together with
some kind of blue fungus. If caught unaware, Aleph is in this room
with R and Square. The mesh in this room contains a trace for
communications between the station and Bioclubs in Noctis-Qianjiao,
specifically in the neighborhood of Biobrug as well as records of the
former crew's ego-casting to various parts of Mars. A small airlock
connects this room to the Command Center.
Hydroponics:
The room is filled with various species of plants. The two most
prominent are Spider Beans (Mix of Spider Plant and Broad Beans) and Bamboo Ferns (Mix of, well, you can guess). Two Snack Bar Morphs
feed on the plants. One of the morphs has a cyst filled with Defiler
Larvae. Six heavily modified healing vats, hooked up to ectos, hold
data for uplift morphs specialized for predation. Also in this system
are the schematics for a station in the Martian Outback, Bio-dome 6.
Bio-dome 6 is an inflated dome, used to test an ecosystem for fully
terraformed Mars consisting of a Mangrove-like swamp. A small airlock
connects this room to the Command Center.
Command Center: This room consists of two parts,
an outer shell that connects the various modules and acts as an
anchor for the inner chamber. A small airlock leads into the central
chamber. Once a modest server and control room, the central chamber
is now packed with advanced servers and healing vats. Inside the
healing vats is a strange blue tissue that is a xenofungal nervous strata,
used for processing power. Attempting to access the server unleashes
a combination of CR Gas and Nervex, as well as a Disassembler swarm
designed to prioritize vacsuits and then synthmorphs. The airlock
seals when the defenses activate. Contained in the system are 4
modified Security A.I. With the AR Illusions, Cauterizer and Bedlam
programs. They have +20 to their Infosec skill due to the advanced
architecture they're in, and an emphasis in cyberbrain hacking. They
will shut the hacker first, then move to hack, or otherwise disrupt
any open connections. A maker, containing the blueprint for a
combination of Psi-Opener (with the X Sleight) and Psike Out, sits on
one of servers. It contains 3 doses of the drug.
The servers contain information on using a xenofungal
strata to accelerate the growth of nervous tissue, therefore cutting
morph production times significantly. The Xenofungus was received
from Lisa Hitchcomb (Actually an Exo-Planet, not a person but
that info isn't contained on these servers). They also contain a plan
on infiltrating the TQZ on Mars to find a town called Chernobog.
Small Airlocks connect to the Dorms, the Body Bank, Hydroponics and
floatways leading to the Shipping and Receiving modules.
Orbital Shipping and Receiving A: The room bears
little to no resemblance to its original form. It has been converted
into an arena combining micrograv and urban combat tactics. Four
industrial fabbers with installed ego bridges line one the central
wall. Six servitor bots move around collecting scrap and releasing
fixer swarms on any damaged sections of the arena. Observant
Sentinels will match the layout of the arena to a Souk in Valles-New
Shanghai known for its wild artificals, only this has been mapped in
3D. The data on the fabbers is all corrupted, seemingly
intentionally. Small airlocks connect to the Ring and the Command
Center floatway. Connected sections of the Ring are Long Range A and
B. A standard Airlock connects to an empty section of the docks with
one docking port.
Orbital Shipping and Receiving B: An enormous
room made into a nest for the Defilers. Bamboo Fersn and Spider Beans
grow from every surface. F# left a synth body dubbed the Von Neumann
morph here, it is plugged into an ego bridge. Gimel is here and will
activate the upload if alerted to intruders. Small airlocks connect
to the Ring and the Command Center floatway. Connected sections of
the Ring are Long Range A and B. A standard Airlock connects to an
empty section of the docks with one docking port.
Long Range Shipping and Receiving A: An enormous,
barren room occupied only by industrial scale fabbers. An industrial
airlock leads outside and tracks set into the wall allow containers
to slide across the surface of the station at high speeds. Computers
routed through here contain the navigational data for a Scum Swarm
called The Shipment of Theseus which takes a route between
Mars and Venus. There are also dossiers on scientists working for
Ambiscience, the defunct corp that made the Synergists' implants.
According to the dossiers, the scientists are traveling by Scum
Swarm. Tick and N are in this room. Small airlocks connect to the
Ring and the Command Center floatway. Connected sections of the Ring
are Orbital A and B. A standard Airlock connects to an empty section
of the docks with one docking port.
Long Range Shipping and Receiving B: A large
room, filled with partially disassembled shipping containers. A four
healing vats are filled with xeno-parasites such as the Gut Eater and
Hook Bladder. Tables with holographic displays offer a disassembled
view of the parasites. An analytic A.I is running on a Xeno-fungal
neural strata in another vat, running analysis on the parasites,
including transgenic morph designs. Five more healing vats sit
opposite them, they are filled with neogenic morphs wit potent
defensive systems and ergonomic organic grips. Aside from the A.I.
The vats do not contain any information on their inhabitants. A set
of four server racks sit apart from the vats, looking like towers on
a keep for a flat table. The servers are apparently air-gaped but are
wired to the table. The table has an access port prominently
displayed, as well as a holographic projector. Attempting to access
the Armed Servitors emerge from concealed panels, and two similarly
hidden turrets activate in the ceiling. The servitors are running
Security A.I. and two are carrying Assault Rifles with Smartlink and
RAP rounds, one is carrying a Seeker Rifle filled with CS Gas splash
rounds, and the last has a Particle Beam Bolter. The Turrets are
using Kinetic SMGs with Homing Accushot rounds. In addition, a
hologram of Dr. Tran will appear, telling the Sentinels that he knew
they'd come sooner or later. At this point, the server racks explode.
They carry the equivalent of 4 Thermobaric missiles (6d10+10 E, -10
AP). Characters accessing the console take half damage on a
successful fray, unless they roll a critical. Small airlocks connect
to the Ring and the Command Center floatway. Connected sections of
the Ring are Orbital A and B. A standard Airlock connects to an empty
section of the docks with one docking port. An industrial airlock
leads outside but the entrance has been rigged with monowire lace.
The Ring: Surrounds the station, connecting all
of the Shipping and Receiving modules. This section is made up of
metallic corridors connected by flexible carbon fiber tubing. It is
filled with Bamboo Ferns. On the exterior of the tubes is a monorail
system, meant for conveying containers from one shipping module to
another. If no alerted to the presence of intruders, Bet is in this
area between Orbital A and Long Range A. It is accompanied by I.
Dorm A: The room contains a sympathy trap,
strapped to a bed converted into a medical table. A concealed SMG
turret sits on the ceiling, ready to fire on anyone who springs the
trap. A small airlock connects this room to the Command Center.
Dorm B: A monowire mesh covers the entrance,
protecting a Xenofungal colony mixed with nanotech. This amalgam is
the Dream Server. Embedded in one of the nodes are the cortical
stacks of the station's former crew. A small airlock connects this
room to the Command Center.
Docks: There are docking sites for 6
trans-orbital vehicles and two long range haulers. Only one
trans-orbital vehicle remains. The ship is connected to Orbital
Shipping and Receiving A.
